Jon wrote: > If all your opponents are directly or near-directly above you, sure, you > might be able to pick off one of the multiple enemies before the others > pick you off. Seriously, speed and altitude are your friend. You're > kidding yourself if you think that many of these airshow maneuvers would > be useful in a dogfight (outside of Hollywood), or even be able to be > performed by just any pilot, with a combat load, during the chaos of a > dogfight. Most of the maneuvering seen in the videos is dynamic. That > is, the aircraft is not holding just any attitude. It can hover when > pointed vertically or nearly so (with no external stores). It cannot > hold a non-vertical attitude without eventually losing altitude. It > *passes*through* all sorts of strange attitudes. But, it's only holding > a vertical attitude for any appreciable time, while slowing down due to > drag. And what's the likelihood of a dogfight taking place? As is often > said nowadays, if you can see an enemy fighter, you're already dead.
After more thought and discussion (offline), some more uses of the capabilities shown by the Su-27 (in particular - not so much from the MiG-29) were pointed out to me. There are some more specific approaches that could be used by a thrust-vectoring aircraft that could be used to great advantage. However, the use of off-boresight missiles can make a big difference in any matchup. If only guns remain, the Su-27 might be something you wouldn't want to be within range of ... jb ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Flightgear-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-users
